18 Dates - Destiel High School AU

A dam broke in him

Castiel ends up not going to his lesson. Between the anxiety of having to talk to Dean about something as embarrassing as being bullied and the fright that had settled in his bones due to Crowley... he could not face it.

He hid himself away in the closest bathroom to his locker in the furthest stall from the door and waited until the end of period bell rang. It was not the first time he had ever skipped class but it didn't happen often.

He just needed that time alone to regroup.

The hallways are loud as Castiel manoeuvres through them, crowded by boisterous teens excited to get some free time with their friends. All the excitement in the halls is too much for him and there is a pounding in his temples that is only heightened by the noises going on around him. The back of his head had collided with the metal lockers pretty hard when Crowley had forced him back against them.

He switches some books from his locker to his bag exceptionally fast before heading to the courtyard. Sitting down at his normal table, he places his bag on the bench beside himself and waits.

His finger tips tap the wood of the table top gently as he checks his wrist watch for the time. There was still about fifteen minutes or so until Dean was released from detention.

He had no idea what to do with himself, which was highly unusual. Castiel was an introvert at heart. That had not changed about him over the last two weeks. He still loved his alone time and the peace and quiet that came with it. Craved it even, after a long day.

To him, there was nothing better than sitting alone with a good educational book and just learning as much as he could about anything he could...

Or so he had thought.

The last two weeks had changed his opinion slightly.

While he still enjoyed being on his own, having someone to talk to about his interests, school wise or generally, was refreshing. Having someone listen and take on board the things he wanted to say, the things he was passionate about, made him feel seen.

At first, Castiel had been unsure about even bothering to indulge Dean and his curiosity when he had shown up in the courtyard.

There were three simple reasons for his doubt.

-When they had first met, Dean had not seemed interested in the educational system or any of the things it included. It surprised him that the boy even wanted to know what he was up to since it involved class work.

-Somewhere deep in the back of his mind, he had been worried the blond may of been playing some kind of joke or prank on him. It would not be the first time that that had happened to him, unfortunately.

-Becoming friendly with people was almost always a set up for disappointment. As a general rule Castiel tried to avoid doing it. Getting close to people, for him anyway, never turned out good. He got bullied a lot due to his clothes or his mannerisms or just simply existing and it made people close to him either turn into victims themselves or retreat before they also ended up targets.

So naturally Castiel had been sceptical about it all.

It was far easier to distance himself from people and keep to himself than it was to be the butt of people's jokes or drag people down to his place at the bottom of the social ladder.

But it seemed that all Dean really had to do was flash a dazzling smile in the boys general direction and Castiel had caved.

All of his rules about not getting to close to anyone for his own sake, and theirs, had flown out of the window with one smile.